Cycling Creatine

[Slugger]

I heard it's best to cycle creatine 2 months on 1 month off. What would happen if you took 5g of creatine for lets say 6 months straight? Would there be irreparable damage to your body?

[DBarcelo]

There is no production of creatine as there is a production of say insulin , so there is no damage that can be caused in that regard. Creatine is a combination of three amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine. The three aminos are combined in the liver to produce methyl guanidine acetic acid. So your body produces creatine by either combining amino acids or by getting it from your diet, such as from suppliments and foods like steak.

Your body doesn't have a threshold for creatine sensativity, but the bigger you are and the more muscle mass on your body, the more creatine your body will store, because creatine is stored primarily in the skelital muscles. I should point out that this is just a theory. If you don't have enough creatine, your body will combine the aminos needed to create more creatine, if you have too much creatine in your body, it will turn the creatine into creatinine and get rid of it.

Only if you have kidney failure is creatinine really a problem. Your kidneys have to get rid of the creatinine through the urinary tract and it doesn't hurt your kidneys to get rid of it, but it will be very hard to get rid of it if your kidneys don't work. Hemo dialysis can dialize creatinine pretty well, as does peratineal dialysis but not quite as well as your kidneys. Your liver creates creatine and if you're supplimenting creatine then your liver won't have to produce any creatine, but the liver never loses it's ability to combine aminos to create creatine. Your liver is still busy combining aminos for other uses, that's why it never loses the ability.

So you don't have to cycle creatine at all. You can take 5 grams of creatine a day for the rest of your life and it shouldn't do anything to your body.

Hope that helps.

[Aragorn]

Didn't I just see this...nice post dbarcelo.

Aragorn

[DBarcelo]

Yeah, you did. Slugger does the double post thing, here and in workout questions.

But thanks.

[Go Time]

I heard it's best to cycle creatine 2 months on 1 month off. What would happen if you took 5g of creatine for lets say 6 months straight? Would there be irreparable damage to your body?

Dbarcelo is absolutely right, there is absolutely nothing that says taking creatine daily for 1 year, 2years,etc. will hurt you at all. I do like to go on the theory(and this is just a theory) that cycling off after about 10-12 weeks consecutive use will alow my body to see a change and possibly be more responsive the next time, however there is also nothing to prove this.

[Ntpadude]

Dbarcelo is absolutely right, there is absolutely nothing that says taking creatine daily for 1 year, 2years,etc. will hurt you at all. I do like to go on the theory(and this is just a theory) that cycling off after about 10-12 weeks consecutive use will alow my body to see a change and possibly be more responsive the next time, however there is also nothing to prove this.

I took creatine for 2 years STRAIGHT and only off cycled for a couple months before starting a steroid cycle last month... well when I off cycled I noticed NO DIFFERNCE, I expected weight loss, loss of strength, etc...,. it didnt happen... I actually believe you can earn in your gains better by staying ON creatine longer at a time.

[Go Time]

I took creatine for 2 years STRAIGHT and only off cycled for a couple months before starting a steroid cycle last month... well when I off cycled I noticed NO DIFFERNCE, I expected weight loss, loss of strength, etc...,. it didnt happen... I actually believe you can earn in your gains better by staying ON creatine longer at a time.

That is definitely good to hear, especially the fact that there was no loss in gains. You very well could be right about achieving better gains the longer you stay on.